About Quick Car Keys
The Short Version
Buzz has been cutting keys for 22 years. Started in a shopping centre stall. Now runs a fully mobile car key replacement service across Melbourne. Over 30,000+ keys cut. 29 Google reviews and not a single one under four stars. 3-year warranty, parts and labour. Half the price of the dealer. That's the pitch.
If you want the longer version, keep reading.
The Origin Story
Buzz — real name Blagoja Zaharijevski, but nobody's ever called him that twice — started out as a cobbler and locksmith. Proper old-school trade. Fixing shoes, cutting house keys, replacing locks. He had a stall in a shopping centre, the kind of spot tucked between the newsagent and the dry cleaner where people would drop off their stuff on the way to Woolies and pick it up on the way back.
He was good at it. More importantly, he liked it. There's something satisfying about precision work with your hands. About a key that slots in and turns perfectly. About fixing something that people genuinely need fixed.
Then car keys started getting complicated.
When Car Keys Got Interesting
Back in the late '90s, car manufacturers started rolling out transponder technology. A tiny microchip inside the key that communicates with the car's immobiliser system. If the chip doesn't match, the car doesn't start. Brilliant for security. Absolute nightmare for anyone who lost their keys.
Suddenly, you couldn't just walk into a hardware store and get a car key copied for $8. The key needed to be cut AND programmed. And the only people set up to do the programming were the dealerships. They knew it. They charged accordingly.
Buzz saw the gap. People were getting quoted $500, $700, $900 for a replacement car key. For a piece of metal and a chip that costs a fraction of that to produce. The markup was — and still is — staggering.
So he invested in the equipment. Learned the programming. Started offering car key replacement at his stall. And watched the demand absolutely explode.
The Moment That Changed Everything
Here's the thing Buzz noticed after a few hundred car key jobs: the look on people's faces when you hand them the finished key. They press the button. The car beeps. The doors unlock. They look at the key. They look at you. And then they say some version of:
"Wait, this is exactly the same as what the dealer would have given me?"
Yep. Same blank. Same chip. Same programming. Same result. Just without the $600 markup and the two-week wait.
That reaction — the genuine surprise that they've been getting ripped off all these years — never gets old. And it's the core of what Quick Car Keys does: give people the same outcome the dealer provides, at a fair price, without the runaround.
Going Mobile
The stall was great. But Buzz kept running into the same problem: people couldn't get their car to him because, well, they didn't have a working key. Kind of the whole point.
So the business went mobile. A van kitted out with everything needed to cut and program keys on site. Key cutting machines. Programming equipment. Blank keys and fobs for dozens of makes and models. The full workshop, but on wheels.
Now Buzz drives to you. Your driveway, your office car park, the Westfield lot where your key vanished into the void. The car stays where it is. No tow truck. No leaving it at a dealer for a week.
22 years Later
Some numbers, because Buzz isn't the type to brag but the numbers speak for themselves:
- 22 years in the trade — cobbler, locksmith, then car key specialist
- 30,000+ keys cut and programmed
- 29 Google reviews — all 4 or 5 stars
- 3-year warranty, parts and labour on every job
- Mon–Sat 9am–9pm — because people lose keys after 5pm too
The business hasn't changed dramatically because it doesn't need to. The technology has evolved — from basic transponder keys to proximity smart keys and push-button start — and Buzz has kept pace with every generation. But the fundamental promise is the same as it was on day one: same key as the dealer, fraction of the price, done properly.
The Disruptor Thing
Look, Buzz isn't trying to put dealerships out of business. They've got their place. If you need warranty work on a 2024 car, go to the dealer.
But car key replacement is not that. It's a service where dealers have been overcharging for decades because they could. Because customers didn't know there was an alternative. Because the technology seemed mysterious enough that people assumed only the dealer could do it.
That's not true. It hasn't been true for years. And every key Buzz cuts is proof.
What Drives the Business
Not growth for growth's sake. Not franchising. Not a chain of shops with employees who learned car keys from a YouTube video last month.
Just one bloke who's been doing this longer than most, who's genuinely good at it, and who still gets a kick out of saving someone $400 on a Wednesday afternoon.
If that sounds like the kind of person you want cutting your car key, call Buzz on 0456 013 246.
Need a Key? Let's Sort It.
Call us on 0456 013 246 or fill out a form and we'll get back to you fast.